WIREDGOV

HM Land Registry and the local land charges (LLC) teams in North Yorkshire have successfully migrated their LLC registers over to the digital LLC service. 

On 1 April 2023, seven district authorities in North Yorkshire merged with the county council to become the North Yorkshire Council. The council says this significant step will allow them to join up and strengthen services, improving the quality of life and opportunities for people across the region.  

HM Land Registry and the local land charges (LLC) teams at Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby have collaborated to migrate successfully their LLC registers over to the award-winning digital LLC service. This means customers now have instant online access to the information. Common charges include planning permissions, listed building status and tree preservation orders.

Obtaining an LLC search result is an essential part of the conveyancing process, as it reveals the restrictions or obligations on the use of a property. These charges could affect the property price and the buying decision, so early access to the information is crucial. Obtaining information early is known to limit the number of property transactions that fail due to late revelations. Typically failed transactions cost buyers time and up to £2,700 per incident.

Within HM Land Registry we are working hard to improve the conveyancing process for everyone by digitising our services and processes. Across North Yorkshire more than 334,000 LLC records were transformed, making the information easily accessible.

David Clothier, Service Improvement & Development Manager, Place Shaping & Economic Growth at Harrogate Council, said:

“We feel proud that our team has pulled together to achieve our part of this national project. Transforming more than a 100,000 LLC records was a huge challenge for us, but the support we got from HM Land Registry was outstanding. Expertise from both organisations helped to overcome many challenges, making the migration journey smoother.”

Delivering the successful migration of seven local authorities’ data to the national register ahead of the unitary’s formation was challenging. The project’s success can be attributed in part to our regional cluster strategy. This strategy enables councils to support each other in the process, which helps to increase the speed of the migrations. We also need to recognise each of the local authority LLC teams who made the migrations possible. By 2025 we aim to migrate all local authorities in England and Wales to the register, allowing the areas to enjoy the wider economic benefits of the digital register.

More than 500,000 searches have already been conducted in migrated areas. High-quality, standardised data also enables government and industry to work more efficiently and effectively. By making the data accessible and interoperable we will enable up to £12 to be released back into the UK economy for every pound we invest.

The lessons learnt during the transfer of data to the register will be applied to future migrations. We aim to increase the pace of local authority migrations and share expertise, so other councils embarking on mergers can learn from North Yorkshire’s experience. We want to unlock the true value of the register to exploit all the benefits for North Yorkshire and the wider economy. To achieve this, we will continue to refine our processes so future migrations become even smoother.